WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday wrestled with whether to allow Alabama to execute a man with low cognitive function, a ruling that could set new rules for states to condemn those with borderline intellectual disabilities to death row.

Roughly two hours of intense arguments did not seem to produce a consensus among the justices over how states should assess IQ tests to determine mental disability.

In a landmark 2002 ruling Atkins v. Virginia, the court decided that sentencing a mentally disabled person to death violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment,” but left it up to states to come up with standards for determining who is too disabled.

Since then, the rules states have used to determine who is ineligible for the death penalty have come

See Full Page